Here's part three of our Rock Band special. For those who haven't seen the others, here's part one, and here's part two. Only one more to go until the thrilling conclusion and brief denouement.

This comic was the first N00b Squad comic done on a Cintiq 12WX. Previously from about, oh, comic 18 exactly I had been using an Intuos 3 9x12” tablet. I had been thinking about the Cintiq for a while and the 12WX made it a more affordable option by halving the price of the larger model. Once Mr.Ramsoomair displayed the results of his Cintiq attainment, I decided it was time to get one. The tablet is smaller than what I used to but it makes drawing characters a whole lot easier since I get to see the results directly under the pen. There’s even a driver calibration tool to make adjustments for the screen angle.

In gaming news, it seems that the world has not frozen over and is playing only Smash Bros. Brawl regardless or not that should happen. However, that’s still pretty much all we’re playing over here so we made another Brawl shirt:

”It’s ball bustin’ time” was Andre’s idea, or “thought gurgitation”, to step up after our immensely popular (for our standards) Challenger Approaching shirt. When there’s a Smash Ball in play, you’ll know what to do. There are other colours available, including black, and you can get to the shirt at any time through the N00b Swag link at the top of the site.

For those playing games other than Smash Bros. Brawl out there, here is an important service announcement:

Play Smash Bros. Brawl

Err, is for those with Rock Band and a PS3, don’t bother looking for “Still Alive” at the moment. Even though the 360 has it right now, the PS3 isn’t going to have the song available until April 17th, presumably with a store overhaul.

On another note, The Behemoth, purveyors of frantic 2D HD old school gaming, are updating their site frequently with a development blog of love in the final marketing push of Castle Crashers. For me, the best parts are the sped up videos of Dan Paladin drawing the levels but there are also some character tidbits after being starved of information for so long.